Pennies in bottles

Give your supporters a plastic bottle and ask them to
fill it with coins - fundraising schemes don't come much easier
than this!

Zoe Redmill, volunteer, Girlguiding UK, Southampton
division:
'Pennies in bottles is one of the easiest initiatives we have used
to raise funds. We source empty 200ml fizzy drink or water bottles
from a local B&B or hotel, keep the lid on and cut a slot near
the neck. We then make the slot safe with a sticker around it and
stick another sticker on the side explaining what we are raising
funds for. We give one bottle to each child. Amazingly around
£8-worth of change fits into a full bottle. We ask our local
B&B to keep the empty bottles back in advance - the lady who
runs the B&B is a Brownie leader, so she's very supportive! We
hand the bottles out at the beginning of September and ask for them
to be returned by Christmas, but some still trickle in after that.
Last year we raised £351.87 from around 100 of our girls. We treat
it as a low-effort event, but the girls enjoy feeling that they
have had some involvement in raising funds.'

Deborah Teasdale, PTA member at Covingham Park Primary
School, Swindon:
'We used to run a Silver Smarties fundraiser, but as the
school has Healthy Schools status, we wanted to avoid giving out
sweets. Also, the children are encouraged to bring water to school
for breaks and we wanted to support that. We had a lightbulb moment
and came up with the idea of filling a bottle of water with coins
instead - the name "Drink Up, Fill Up" came later! We
purchased enough bottles of water for every pupil and sent a letter
out via Parentmail a few days before sports day. As an added
reminder, we stuck labels on the bottles with the "Drink Up, Fill
Up" message. We asked school staff to distrubute the bottles for us
on sports day itself. Depending when sports day falls, we
usually give two weeks for bottles to be filled. We also send out a
Parentmail reminder. It works really well, as children like
filling the bottles and it's not something that requires too much
time and effort from parents. It doesn't disrupt the school day and
doesn't require a lot of school staff time either, although
counting all the coins takes some time from the Friends! We usually
make £340 profit. My advice would be to give the bottles out
at the end of sports day, when children are going home - otherwise
they drink the water and leave the bottles behind on the
field!'